During my undergraduate law degree I attended a summer school in IT/IP and Data Privacy law. I thoroughly enjoyed the program and wanted to learn more about these areas of law in practice. After interning in the IT/IP and Data Privacy teams of several international law firms and studying IP and IT law electives, I was confident that I wanted to train and specialise at a firm which excelled in those areas. Bristows was a natural choice as it consistently ranked in the top bands for these practice areas and had an excellent reputation for being friendly and providing quality training.

I first applied to Bristows in May 2020 and found the application process streamlined and human-centric as Bristows does not use psychometric testing.  Although I was unsuccessful in my first application cycle, this did not deter me from re-applying in 2021 and securing a training contract that year. The interviews were tough but gave me an insight into the complex problems at the forefront of new technologies and regulatory developments which lawyers at Bristows face.

After joining Bristows I was positively surprised at the level of responsibility and training given to trainees from day one. So far I have sat in Real Estate, Brands and Commercial IP/IT/DCL. Some typical day-today trainee tasks include proof-reading, doing legal research, taking attendance notes, drafting advice emails or letters to clients and doing internal presentations. In my seat in Real Estate I got to draft several leases, take transactions through to completion and took calls directly from clients. In Brands, I sat in on witness calls and had the chance to write the first draft of a witness statement. No two days of my training contract have been the same and I’ve enjoyed working with a wide range of people on a variety of matters.

One of the benefits of being part of a small intake of only 10 trainees, is that we have been able to get to know each other and support each other throughout studying the LPC and our training contract. Being a trainee at Bristows, while intensive, has been a rewarding experience as I am developing new skills every single day and the people around me always make time to help me learn.